Peter Gabriel’s nonprofit group Witness is using video as a weapon to fight human rights abuses around the world.
 For more information about opportunities to volunteer for or work with Witness, visit their website at www.witness.org. |
In 1988, Amnesty International USA put together a concert to mark the 40
“He had a Handycam at the time and he took it on tour with him,” says Gillian Caldwell, executive director of Witness, the nonprofit human rights group Gabriel cofounded. “He started to put two and two together and began to realize how video footage could be used to make a difference in the human rights movement.”
In 1991, Gabriel's vision was made all too clear when a bystander with a video camera captured Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King, creating a public outcry. Within months, Gabriel received a seed grant from the Reebok Foundation and the commitment of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. In 1992, Witness began operating in offices in New York City with the mission of using video to overcome political, economic, and physical barriers, and to expose human rights abuses to the world.
“Video has a power and an immediacy that written words don't have,” Caldwell says. “It is a very important catalyst for change in the human rights movement.”
In the last decade, Witness has distributed more than 200 video cameras to about 150 human rights groups in 50 countries. Footage from the cameras — primarily single-chip models such as Canon's Elura and Sony's family of MiniDV cameras — has been used to counterbalance official reports governments submit to the U.N. regarding human rights records; as evidence in legal proceedings; for grassroots education; and in news broadcasts.
In 1998 and 1999, Witness joined with Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) to shoot and produce Forgotten People, a nine-minute video exposing the abuse of mentally disabled patients in Mexican psychiatric facilities. Narrated by Susan Sarandon and streamed on the Witness website, the report caught the eye of producers from ABC's 20/20, which broadcast portions of the video. In late 2000, the Mexican government relocated the patients and closed the facility.
Sam Gregory, Witness program coordinator, says that although footage shot with cameras provided by Witness occasionally makes the news, more often than not it is used to exact change locally or regionally. “The power of video has really been an eye-opener, particularly for smaller [human rights] groups working on a local level,” says Gregory, who works as a video producer for Witness and trains human rights groups to shoot and edit the footage. “Most of our partners have started to use video when they come to us, but a lot of them don't realize all the different places they can use it.”
To fully empower their partners, Gregory says Witness recently started distributing editing software, such as Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress DV, and training the groups to edit video. All of the video equipment that Witness loans its partners is either donated secondhand equipment or new equipment purchased by Witness.
“We don't have any deals with manufacturers, so we look for the best deals at retail,” Gregory says. “We also try to reach out to the entertainment industry, but we haven't really reached out to video professionals like we should.”
Want to get involved? Gregory says Witness is always looking for equipment donations, as well as volunteers who would like to help train human rights groups to use the equipment. He's also looking for volunteers to help develop an archival and storage system for the 700-plus hours of video footage at the Witness offices. And they're hiring a full-time video editor to work on their Avid Media Composer 9000 XL in New York.
Cody Holt is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Email him at codyholt@kc.rr.com.